Month: July 2009

Grandma’s House = No Internet

Jeff, , ,

After a week of rest (but really not, since I had to help my cousin move into her new apartment,  as well as accompany her while she traveling around the city making plans for her wedding) at my uncle’s house, my aunt and uncle helped me transport all my luggage to my [maternal] grandparent’s house, where I will be staying for the remainder of my time in Beijing. My aunt and I joked that we had done so much moving this week that would should start a family business.

My grandparents live just inside the third ring on the city’s east side, a fairly convenient location as far as commuting goes. Traveling to CITIC, where I start working next Monday, is a mere 20 minutes away by bus. Grandpa and grandma live in a two bedroom apartment not too far away from the Beijing Lufthansa Shopping Center (Yan Sha). About five years ago, they decided to purchase the adjacent one bedroom suite and connect it to the original suite, so now, the place is pretty spacious. It is also more convenient for my grandparents, since they can accommodate guests more easily. Recently, due to my grandpa’s health problems, my grandma has “moved in” with him to the newer suite. As a matter of habit, however, I am still staying in the guest room on the apartment’s older side. Truth be told, I’ve stayed at my grandparent’s so often over the past few summers that aside from Lawrenceville, their apartment, and the guest room in particular, has become my home away from home. The only downside is that in this age of rapid technological growth, the apartment is still without internet connection. However, I’m not going to complain too much, since it gives me more time to read, write (offline) blog entries, and other more productive activities. Besides, I’ll most likely be able to access the internet during weekdays while I’m at CITIC.

My room at my grandparents' apartment My only major concern at the moment is mosquitoes. In the past, I’ve had some nasty encounters while staying in Beijing. This year, I’ve only been bitten once, and I hope to keep it that way. If things start to get bad, I may have to start burning incense every night, a measure I have resorted to in years past.

Web Censorship in China: Annoying? Yes. Logical? No.

Jeff,

After four days of isolation from the web (yes, that is a long time), I open Firefox to find 18 unread mail (15 of which are useless), that Dinara Safina is still the #1 ranked tennis player in the world, and that Facebook and Youtube are blocked. However, I suppose there is no reason why I should be surprised by any of this, least of all the last item. This is China, after all.

What I don’t understand, though, is why Facebook, a popular social networking program, is blocked and its counterpart, MySpace (arguably no longer as popular, but still going strong) is not. As an avid Facebook user, I must protest against such censorship discrimination. To be honest, I would be happier if both sites were banned, rather than just one. Now, instead of feeling frustrated, I’m left feeling both frustrated and confused. Along the same lines, how is that YouTube and Twitter are both blocked, but flickr is not? All three can be used effectively to disseminate information (or create chaos, in the eyes of the Chinese government), and as the adage goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words” (but apparently not 140 characters.)

So I understand you don’t want videos being posted on the internet of soldiers suppressing crowds in Tibet or of the current violence in Xinjiang, but posting pictures is OK?

That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. And let’s face it. As hard as the Chinese government tries to prevent such information from spreading on the Internet, images and video footage will eventually get out sooner or later. It becomes a matter of being embarrassed now, or trying to save face and getting embarrassed later. Either way, it’s more bad PR, but China seems intent on holding to the latter, which only has the potential to generate more confusion and misunderstanding on the international level.

I could go on about this topic, but I think I will stop now and go browse random pictures on flickr for the next couple of hours. I’ll see you tomorrow—that is, if this blog hasn’t been banned by then.

Arrival In China: Jeffrey – 1; Jetlag – 0

Jeff, ,

Phew, what a day it has been! I woke up at around 8:00AM this morning, after sleeping for roughly 12 hours. Not bad, considering that I had not slept for 24 hours. The problem with traveling to a country that is exactly 12 hours ahead of you is adjusting to the time zone. This process can be difficult, but is extremely crucial, and it all comes down to how you spend  the first night. The trick is to not fall asleep until your normal bedtime; otherwise, your internal clock will be screwed for the next three days or so. Trust me, feeling sleepy at 5:30PM and waking up 6:00AM everyday is not a particularly fun experience. Luckily, it seems that I’ve been able to overcome any major side effects of jetlag this time around, thanks to my cousin. To pass the time, she took me to her future apartment, where she will be staying once she gets married next month. The apartment is not huge, but my cousin and her husband Feng did do a very good job of decorating. The furniture all have a very nice flora motif, and the lights and lamps are aesthetically unique. Two identical Sony Bravia HDTVs serve as the focal point of the one bedroom apartment, along with a brand new (unlocked) X-BOX 360 gaming system. By unlocked, I mean that the console itself is modified so that it can play pirated game discs. So while consoles themselves run as much as 2200 RMB (more than $300), the games are as cheap as 5 RMB (less than $1). Now it’s no contest where one would want to purchase a gaming console. After playing various games on the 360 for a few hours, we went out to eat. By the time the day was over, I was totally burnt out, but I hadn’t slept a wink since the morning before. Success!

Last minute packing and other thoughts

Jeff, ,

After a month of waiting, the big day is finally here! I will be flying out of the Garden State at around noon tomorrow and arriving in Beijing the next day in the early afternoon, local time (can you say jet lag?). As usual, I will not be sleeping a wink on the 12 hour plane ride…I’ve found that watching movies non-stop is a much more entertaining way of spending one’s time. As for how I’m going to spend my free time in China, I’ve decided to bring the following items:

  • Jack Kerouac’s On the Road – an appropriate title indeed
  • Jim Collin’s Built to Last – finally, I can finish this book
  • Two issues of Discover magazine – plus I can do the puzzles in the back
  • My laptop – how else will I be able to blog while I’m in China? 😉
  • My iPod Touch – I just downloaded the solitaire app, so it’s all good.
  • Math textbook – this is for when I’m bored. Nothing burns time like doing differential equations…(nerd alert!)
  • Rubik’s Cube – this is for when I’m really bored…or when I feel like showing off, though I suspect all the kids in the China can probably do it faster than I can.
  • My GUITAR! – you have no idea how excited I am to travel with my guitar :D. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Continental will let me bring it as a carry-on. Hey, there’s nothing that a smile and a friendly attitude can’t solve.
  • Clothes – self-explanatory.
  • Money – also self-explanatory.
  • Other junk (i.e. gifts) – this is all the stuff that I’m bringing for other people, and can be divided roughly into two categories: consumable junk (e.g. fish oil, chocolate covered raisins, multivitamins) and non-consumable junk (e.g. sponges (wtf!?!?), wedding presents :)). Why my grandparents won’t buy their sponges in China is still a mystery to me…maybe the quality is bad?

Phew! That certainly is a lot. What’s sad is that the majority of the stuff I’m carrying, both by weight and by volume, does not belong to me. Like I said before, it’s all junk. Thus is my curse for being Chinese and traveling alone to China during the summer.

One last thing: according to my e-ticket, there will be no meals served during the flight. I hope this is some egregious typo, because as much as I detest airplane food, I hate starving even more.

Hello World!

Jeff, , 2 Comments

OK, so I know the title is a bit clichéd, but it’s been a while since I last started a website, and the first post is always something special. The reason I started this blog was mainly to give my life some focus. To put things in perspective, it’s been over a month since high school has ended, one month since giving my valedictory to a much downsized Lawrenceville community (Swine ’09, need I say more?), one month since saying goodbye to friends whom I may not see for another year or so (though hopefully sooner). So how did I end up spending my June? Well, to sum it up: DotA, anime, online shopping, guitar, more DotA. I finally got so disgusted with my lifestyle that I ended up uninstalling Warcraft III for the sixth time in my life, although it probably won’t be the last. But in retrospect, my summer thus far has not been totally unproductive. I did keep a strict workout regimen for the first 3 weeks. Unfortunately, this ended abruptly because I had to get my wisdom teeth removed, a process I don’t feel like talking about at the moment. I have also made $300 + $750 from tutoring and building a website, respectively, and even with my impulsive spending, I still have around $2.5k in the bank, which isn’t terrible. Maybe I should start investing in stocks…

This Saturday, I head for Beijing. I cannot being to describe how excited I am. Although this is a trip I make almost every summer, this year is special for several reasons. First, the H1N1 breakout has significantly delayed my trip (I was supposed to leave in early June), so my usual excitement and anxiety has been building up continuously for a month now. This, coupled with the fact that I have not been able to exercise much for the past 10 days because of my wisdom teeth, has made me one jittery person. Second, I get to attend my cousin Fan Wei’s wedding. Being the youngest (by far) even in my extended family, I’m not very close to most of my cousins, except for Fan Wei, whom I hang out with every summer. She’s a teacher at a very prestigious elementary school in Beijing. I haven’t met her fiancé yet though…This is the first wedding I will have ever attended, so I am quite excited. Given that it is a Chinese wedding, everything is sure to be very grandiose, but there is something about that atmosphere that I find very appealing. Third, I’m interning for one of my father’s colleagues at CITIC, one of the largest state-owned banks in China. I will be working in the International Banking department. According to my dad, the work is boring, but I’m excited to pick up some experience in actual commercial banking. Depending on how things work out, I may have the opportunity to intern or at least take a look at an investment bank, which would be amazing. All in all, I hope my trip to China will be a good balance of work and play.

I will be sure to blog regularly while I’m in Beijing, although I don’t get internet at my grandparent’s house >.<. Until then, I’ll be spending the last few days of my time in the U.S. tweaking my new blog. Please leave a comment and drop by once in a while!